Race Face ?

As the famous song (nearly goes) "I'd like to teach my body to run in perfect harmony"

 

Or indeed another line from an equally famous ditty, "Your foot bone's connected to your ankle bone" 

 

Well my body isn't in harmony and if my foot bone is connected to my ankle bone then they and the rest of my bones have had a family dispute and all fallen out !

 

The fact is I've recently found running anything other than a bath a bit of a struggle, but that's ok, these things happen and when I stop struggling and thinking about struggling everything in the garden will be rosy again. 

 

I've had great times running around my local area. When the wind is with you and your bones are on friendly terms the feeling is fab and you get to enjoy all this!

Ultra Summer

All our running in spring and early summer has been a steady mileage build up for a mid-summer season of Ultra running on the lovely trails of the Lake District. My wife Angela and I have spent many a happy day trotting about the fells, map in hand exploring race routes.

We had entered three summer Ultras, the Ultimate Trails 55K, Montane Lakeland 50 miles and the Grand Tour of Skiddaw. This is how it went.

ULTIMATE TRAILS 55K   27 JULY

We did this event for two reasons, firstly as a warm up for the Lakeland 50 and mostly because the route goes through stunning areas of the Lake District. Getting fantastic weather on the day was a wonderful bonus.

We set off on this adventure from Ambleside and headed straight up a very steep and winding road until we hit the trail that brought us onto a section of road called “The Struggle”. This is barely walkable, never mind runnable! From here you plateau out opposite the Kirkstone Pass Inn and stumble into the car park for a well needed rest at the checkpoint. I was surprised how early this checkpoint was while reading the pre-race notes, I was bloody glad it was there now!

Our next section followed the Kirkstone Pass on a fantastic single track trail, which was an absolute joy to run on, I really pushed the pace a bit here as it was downhill and good terrain underfoot. The trail widened as we came to Brotherswater and I probably ran this harder than planned but I was feeling great at this point. After a short road section we hit a trail on the opposite side of the valley, this again was great running, so I continued cracking on all the way to the Glenridding checkpoint.

I chucked down a quarter of a pork pie and drink here and then ground out the extremely tough next section through the valley and up to Grizedale Tarn. It is a never ending rocky climb to the tarn and I was delighted to get past it and absolutely fly down into Grasmere.

More drinks and a fill of the bottles and I headed out of Grasmere and up and over to lovely Langdale. The heat of the day was really beginning to kick in now and all I had on my mind was drinking. I distracted myself the best I could by savouring the magnificent views and slowly sipping my drinks but nothing would take the drink craving away.

I was awfully glad to get some more drinks down at the checkpoint near Lingmoor and promised myself a beer at the Sticklebarn Tavern checkpoint. The next few miles are all easy running on great trails surrounded by the most perfect Lakeland scenery, so that and the promised beer kept me going at a good pace.

This was the last fuel and drink stop, so I made sure I got plenty of coke down and a cheese and pickle buttie. Once I had a sat down with my refreshments and recuperated a bit, it was time to keep my promise to myself. So I headed down to the bar and got myself the promised lager, it was absolutely the best thing I had ever tasted.

From here it was all great trail running back to the finish at Ambleside, with only a small climb up and over the shoulder of Loughrigg Fell.  On the descent the lady in front of me had a bad fall, I quickly stopped and helped her up, she was shaken but not badly hurt, so we both charged off back down to the finish. I waited for Angela, enjoying cheering all the other competitors in. I was glad to see she came through to the finish looking happy. So another achievement had been completed by us both.

 

ANGELA – 8 HOURS 29 MINUTES    CHARLES – 7 HOURS 31 MINUTES

Cross Training (Not running angry)

Cross training is not as it sounds (Running angry) but in fact a great way to help prevent injury and increase strength and flexibility in muscles you don't use for running. It also helps relieve boredom in a heavy running regime and improve form, a strong core for example makes a stronger runner.

Cross training can be very varied from Cycling, swimming, fitness classes and strength training so really there is something for everyone and better still you can mix it up.

PT (Personal Trainer)
Now to some having a personal trainer is a luxury as they can be quite expensive, however if you find a good one they are worth their weight in gold. The obvious benefits are that they build a plan to suit you and you get no let up at all ! I like being pushed in sessions and indeed with no need to wait for weights or machines I get a serious non stop hour+ every time I go.

If you find a PT is not for you then no problem there are all kind of boot camps and fitness groups you could join to gain benefit and train communally.

I have been lucky enough to find two great PT's and been put through all kinds of agony!

Mountain climbers